SAl JOAQUIH BISTOlllAH PUBLISHED QUAIilTERlY BY SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P. O. lOX 21, Lool, CALIFORNIA - 95240
.......................................................................................... VOLUME VIII
FEBRUARY, 1972
NUMBER .1
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THE ESCALON INDIAN SKELETON AND POUCH
By Baxter Sperry
In 1939 the Federal Government was clearing land in California so that it would be useful for farm·
ing. In southeastern San Joaquin County near Escalon was a piece of perfectly level land, about
40 acres in extent t which was covered with hundreds of old oak trees. The WPA men doing the
clearing had t as part of their work t to count the rings on the trees they felled and fill ina report
for their Chief. The trees ranged in diameter from two to three feet.
Roy Foote of Galt t later Municipal Judge for the District t was a leaderman on the clearing project
and tells of this incident. One large tree t about thirty inches in diameter t was close to an old
Indian trail that could be seen crossing the piece of land where the men were working. About four
men dug a large circle about two feet deep around the tree with picks and shovels t using a mattock
to cut the roots. When the tree fell, under where its crown had rested was the skeleton of an Indian,
a full grown man lying stretched out on his back with his arms at his sides. On the skeleton's chest
was a pouch of leathert with a round bottom about four inches across sewed to a tube about eight
inches tall. From the description it sounds much like a present day quiver. There was no closing at
the top end of the pouch t and the stitches were of a very th in leather thong.
Each of the men took some of the contents of the pouch for souvenirs t and Judge Foote sti II has most
of the contents that were his share. There would seem to be no way in which the dead Indian could
have been placed under the tree after it was growing. There were 260 rings in the oak trunk, which
would make it 260 years old t or, counting back from the time it was felled, it had been growing
there since about 1680 AD.
Fortunate Iy Judge Foote has had a lifelong interest in Indian life and artifacts t so that t from the
things which he found a fair amount of knowledge can be obtained. There was a great quantity of
red and white beads t nearly enough to fill a quart jar. These beads were either reddish orange in
colort or white. Some hod orange outside and white inside, and similar beads are found in museums
in the West. They are made of clay flattened and rolled into a tube t then cut and baked. There
are none without glaze. They vary in size from tiny ones about one-eighth of an inch across to some
about three-eights of an inch in diameter. Some are flattened t like little doughnuts t some are
nearly round. Judge Foote sent some of these beads to the University of California at Los Angeles
around 1940 t and was told that the material did not come from the United States, and the univer­
sity stoff could not identify it. It is known that beads have been manufactured in the Philippine
Islands since the fourth century A D, and trade beads were mode in Venice in the 16th century and
later. There are beads t similar in colort of magnesite, which the Indians value highly, but these
are usually longer and rougher on the surface. The Russians also traded beads to the West Coast In­
dians for furs t "Moss faces"as the traders were called from their beards are sti II referred to by old
Indians. The question of dating still remains. Spain ceded Old and New California to Russia in
1817, and before that forbade foreigners to trade on these shores. There waSt however, illicit trade,
and these may be Russian trade beads of a very early period.
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The largest chann was a piece of haliotis shell, or abalone, iridescent on both sides, worked into
a long rectangle with a hole bored through the upper end. These channs were highly valued for
use as fish ing channs, and were suspended over a stream or bay or other body of water to attract
the fish. They were a Iso worn by the shamans I or med ic ine men in the i r ri tua I dances.
In the pouch was a Iso a fossi I of animal bone. It looks as though it had been in water and had crys­
tallized. There are indentations out! ining where tiny clam or mussel shells had been imbedded in
the bone joint. This was a charm of some sort. The coyote figured largely in the Indian mythology,
and this may have been a fragment of coyote bone valued for its magical properties.
Among the relics was a green stone which is highly prized by Western Indians as a chann stone. It
was about an inch long and half an inch in diameter, of a shade slightly darker than oriental jade,
and was very smooth as though it had lain in a stream bed or had been polished. Stones are some­
times used by Indian net makers, to measure each mesh when working the net, but the color green
suggests that this, too, was a chann.
There was a pendant about two inches long and half an inch wide, thicker than shell, which looked
Iike polished bone with a hole in one end, and many pieces of either stone or seashell, triangular
in shape, dark bluish-grey, with a hole in the outer edge. There were white or light streaks in
the material, and these ornaments were highly polished, and were slightly less than an inch on
each side, and flat.
One unusua I item was very th in flat copper. Each piece of this, and there were many, had rather
jagged edges and was rolled to make a bead. Copper is not worked by Cal ifornia Indians, and
Judge Foote suggests that these pieces were probably traded. He has been to burial mounds in
southern Oregon where these copper beads were numerous.
There was nothing in the area cleared that would suggest a burial mound, and no other skeletons
were found during the clearing operation. It would seem, on guessing, that this skeleton belonged
to an Indian who was on a trading trip, and died a long the trail. Either he lay down to die with
his belongings on his chest, or companions buried him. In some Indian buria Is burning of the be­
longings of the dead person is usual, but these artifacts were not burned, which would make this
seem a hurried, not a ritual burial.
Judge Roy Foote, as a young man in New York State, was a friend of Warren K. Moorehead, a
national authority on Indian artifacts. The two men frequently went on digging expeditions to­
gether. Since coming to California Judge Foote has made astudyof the California Indians and has
a collection of most of the California types of arrowheads, spearheads, ceremonial and charm
stones. Judge Foote is well known for his lectures to clubs and school groups.
*Author's note: There are many different opinions and conjectures about artifacts, but I have used
opinions from the best authorities [ could find, and given all of the possibilities mentioned by the
authors who wrote my reference books.
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